State Department Seeks Phone, E-mail and Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

The Department of State is seeking Office of Management and Budget approval to update the immigrant and nonimmigrant forms with a set of new questions. If approved, the forms would require applicants to submit details of all previous phone numbers, e-mail addresses, as well as social media handles, which they used for the past 5 years preceding the date of application. In addition, the forms may include questions about international travel history, as well as whether the visa applicant was ever deported or removed from any country.

If implemented, the new rule would affect about 710,000 immigrant and 14 million non-immigrant visa applicants. The State Department says it will collect this information “for identity resolution and vetting purposes based on statutory visa eligibility standards.”

The State Department will be accepting comments from the public until May 29, 2018.